Vladimir Koshkin
Vladimir Koshkin is a fictional character in the novel Empire of Blood. He is a boss in the Russian mafia; Bratva in Brighton Beach also called “Little Odessa" due its tight-knit Russian and Eastern European communities. He is into racketeering, human trafficking, and prostitution and drugs. All organized crime families were pushed to sell red dragon heroin for a power structure much more powerful run by the notorious ‘The Baby.’ His most trusted advisor Artur went behind his back against “The Baby” who taught him a lesson by massacring many of his gang members ‘The Baby spared Artur’s life giving Vladimir a choice what to do with him. Vladimir shot him in cold blood believing he was too much a liability. Artur was soon replaced by another Sovietnik which is a Councilor the advisor and most close trusted individuals to the Pakhan (boss). His replacement was Boris a large intimidating man he could also use as an Krysha (enforcer). A Sovietnik is similar to the Consigliere in Italian-American Mafia crime families and Sicilian Mafia clans. Vladimir Koshkin is ruthless and had the whole NYPD on his payroll. He would use blackmail and fear to threaten to kill their family members to get the police to work for him. He even had FBI Robert Jenkins who was the FBI head agent in charge of capturing him, instead he was his mole. Agent Cassidy was investigating Koshkin about a vodka smuggling operation in Port Newark info about smuggling huge amounts of vodka out of a port in Newark, New Jersey and worked out an ingenious way to avoid paying taxes on it by dying it blue. Label it windshield washer fluid, ship it to Russia, un-dye it, and then sell it as vodka. After she approached him about it, her boss Jenkins called her off the case. Later at a house raid of a dirty police officer, Cassidy and another agent noticed a connection between their boss Jenkins with Koshkin. A FBI informant was murdered by police officer James Massey and Syrian born Akbar Bakir a store owner. Bakir was allies with the Russian mafia. Stolen taxpayer money was laundered to Syria for nonconventional weapons program, including its manufacture of Sarin and VX nerve agents and mustard gas. Millions of dollars of stolen Russian taxpayer money was laundered a decade ago in connection with the so-called "Magnitsky affair," perhaps the most notorious corruption case in Vladimir Putin's Russia. The agents notice that the only way Bakir and Massey could have found out about their FBI informant was if their boss told Koshkin who in return told Massey. It was agent Charlotte Cassidy with the help of few other agents who brought her boss Jenkins down along with Koshkin’s most trusted Hitman Orlov “The Gentleman.” Who was hired to kill agent Walters who was onto him. Personality Vladimir Koshkin is a loyal supporter to his country. He supports The People's Liberation Front of Russia who are doing all they can to free Russia from the Caucasian and Hebrew "occupiers. He believes his cousin Ivan Knyazev a restaurant owner is not doing his duty for his country. His cousin just wants to live his life and business here in America and do not care to get involved in Russian politics. Vladimir is a cold blooded killer and sought revenge on his brothers' killers. Through investigation he found out the new singer Christina Griffith and her accomplice Tony Perillo were responsible for their deaths in Summer of Blood. When he found out he was ordered by 'The Baby' not to take action right away. when that time came he sent his hitman "The Gentleman" to bail Griffith from jail to kill her. Things didn't go as planned. Koshkin was still on the rise while his ancestor Nadiya watches him like a guardian angel from a distance. Political Connections As a supporter of the People’s Liberation Front of Russia, his goal prior to the election was to elevate Donald Trump to the nation’s highest office. That is because President Putin as reformer and leader of the Liberation movement will need support of this America president. Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the real power in the Russian Federation is in the hands of the United States, and this form of government has led the "occupied" country to the "colony" status. There are many moles in law enforcement in the United States. This isn’t just to prevent safety for the Russian mafia; it is to also insure business and politics. The worlds of crime, politics, business and the state security services in Russia became interconnected in the 1990s. After Vladimir Putin became president in 2000, the structure of this interconnection changed, with political elites beginning to use the criminal world to their own benefit, as a result "gangsters could continue to be gangsters without fearing the kind of systematic crack-down they had feared - but only so long as they understood that the state was the biggest gang in town. While the Russians may seem to pull the strings, there is something much more insidious and powerful behind it all, the Russian mafia is just a puppet like all the other criminal organizations and cults in New York and globally, that organization is the Crimson Hand of Death who will use anyone for their own agenda, an agenda that is separately from the Russians or anyone else.